Elimental » Mobile http://www.elimental.com Type A Engineer Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:08:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 What phone should I get? http://www.elimental.com/2010/08/what-phone-should-i-get/ http://www.elimental.com/2010/08/what-phone-should-i-get/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:08:01 +0000 Ilya Rivkin http://www.elimental.com/?p=248 “What phone should I get?” that’s a question I get quite a bit. For those that don’t know, I make apps for the iPhone as my day job and my main phone is the Motorola Droid on Verizon. So here is the answer I give- What provider do you use? Do you like them? Personally I think Verizon is the best provider, but it’s also the most expensive.  If T-Mobile or Sprint give you good service where you are and you pay 20 bucks a month less, great! Get whatever phone is the best at the time when you are renewing your contract if you aren’t satisfied with your current one. It’s impossible to keep up with technology and there is always going to be a better phone out there.

Now when I say “best phone” I am actually talking about one of two types of phones – either an iPhone or an android phone. Dumb phones are for high school kids, and no one actually buys a blackberry( their company gives them one),  Whatever phone runs windows is going to suck, and you probably don’t know what Symbian is . If you are on a network that has the iPhone, then get the iPhone. It’s not going to be exclusive to AT&T forever and you can bet you’ll see me standing in line for one when it comes out on Verizon. On the other networks there is probably at least good android phone. Currently on Sprint it’s the EVO 4G, on T-Mobile it’s the Samsung Galaxy S, and on Verizon you have the Droid X and Incredible. Also don’t worry about the actual price of the phone when comparing them. The price of the contract, with data plan, is way more than a hundred dollar difference- get the better one.

]]> http://www.elimental.com/2010/08/what-phone-should-i-get/feed/ 2 Android Market vs App Store http://www.elimental.com/2010/02/android-market-vs-app-store/ http://www.elimental.com/2010/02/android-market-vs-app-store/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:37:34 +0000 Ilya Rivkin http://www.elimental.com/?p=164 What do you need to have a successful platform? One of the things is good quality applications. That has been true since the early days of Windows and Mac OS. Without Word and Excel, Lotus,  and some other key programs, the Windows platform would not have taken off. Same thing goes for Mac OS in the design industry.

iPhone OS right now boasts over 140,000 apps in the store, and the strict review process makes Apple the gate keeper that only lets good quality apps get in. Android doesn’t come close to that number having about 1/10th of that number of apps. But it’s taking a different approach.

Check out the App store on the iPhone and search for “Google” you’ll find Google Earth and Google Mobile app. Now do the same in the Android Market. You’ll find, Google Goggles, Skymap, Voice, Translate, Gmail, Finance, Talk, Shopper, Earth, etc..

Google does not have a strict review process, so they are making sure there are going to be high quality apps in the market by writing their own.  Aside from games, most useful apps are tied into a back-end service- think Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Weather, Mail, NYtimes, etc.. Google is making apps that tie into one of the best back-ends out there. Their own! So even though Android does not have the number of apps as the iPhone, they have some that pack quite a punch. As more of the big development companies start porting apps to the android, Google’s apps might differentiate the two platforms considerably.

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